PTI's Sibtain Khan seeks acquittal in Chiniot mining case

LAHORE: Punjab’s former minister for forests and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Sibtain Khan has sought acquittal in the Chiniot mining case, ARY News reported.

Sibtain and other co-accused filed a plea in the accountability court of Judge Muhammad Sajid Ali. The accused in their plea stated that reference against them does not fall in the NAB limits after NAB Amendment Ordinance.

They pleaded with the court to set them free from the reference. Meanwhile, the court after summoning reply from the NAB on the acquittal plea, adjourned the further hearing of the case by December 14.

It is pertinent to mention here that the former Punjab Minister for Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Sibtain Khan had been released after furnishing bail bonds in the sum of Rs5 million with two sureties over the orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on September 28.

Sibtain Khan was released after the issuance of ‘robkar [mandamus]’, a copy of which obtained by ARY News, by an accountability court in Lahore following the acceptance of his post-arrest bail plea in LHC under Article 199.

Khan had been arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on June 14 over the charges of awarding contracts illegally for extracting minerals in Chiniot.

It may be noted that the release orders of Sibtain Khan were given after the issuance of a 20-page written verdict of the Lahore High Court earlier in the day given by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem in connection with the bail petition submitted by the PTI leader.